During the Q1 2026 earnings call, Tesla addressed concerns regarding recent NHTSA incident filings, with company executives emphasizing a spotless safety record for their autonomous operations. Ashok Elluswamy, Director of Autopilot Software, confirmed that the company’s unsupervised fleet has maintained “zero incidents” to date, a fact he noted is reflected in federal filings.
While the company is scaling its dedicated QA fleet across the United States to accelerate validation, it is primarily relying on its massive customer base to refine the technology. Elluswamy revealed that the global Tesla fleet is “close to driving 10 billion miles on FSD in the next few weeks,” providing an immense data advantage that the company uses to monitor safety metrics across the entire customer vehicle fleet.
Tesla is moving beyond basic safety to focus on the nuances of urban driving that can hinder a smooth rollout. Elluswamy explained that the company is “simultaneously solving the long tail of safety” while also addressing scaling issues that affect the user experience. This includes ensuring vehicles do not get stuck or block intersections and preventing the robotaxi from dropping people off at slightly incorrect locations.
Despite suggestions to deploy thousands of driverless vehicles immediately to speed up development, Tesla is sticking to a measured strategy. By using the customer fleet to provide useful metrics back, the company aims to scale safely and accelerate validation while also identifying any factors that could throttle the increase of unsupervised vehicles. Elluswamy stated that the team is absolutely focused on safety as they work to remove the safety driver from the equation.
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